I want to know how the motorcycle Speedo is supposed to measure airspeed, how the rudder back there is supposed to affect anything, since he has no cyclic and the rotors are affixed to a non tiltable bar (judging from the support brackets in the pics) how is he going to control his direction of flight, I have many other questions but those will do for a start...

Pribar:I want to know how the motorcycle Speedo is supposed to measure airspeed, how the rudder back there is supposed to affect anything, since he has no cyclic and the rotors are affixed to a non tiltable bar (judging from the support brackets in the pics) how is he going to control his direction of flight, I have many other questions but those will do for a start...

As long as he gets forward speed, the rudder will have some effect in changing his direction of flight.

If you look *CAREFULLY*, you will see that the axles coming off the differential are in tubes, so in theory he could tilt the rotors along that axis, and there appears to be 2 u-joints between the differential and the engine, so that *COULD* allow some degree of tilt.

Having said all that, I don't believe that thing got over a foot off the ground.

I'm glad I saw this because I had planned to install something similar on my ceilings. Now I know that if I had done that, the downward force would have lifted my house off its foundation and caused it to fly around. It's cool, though, because I could use my kid's trike to steer it.

dittybopper:Pribar: I want to know how the motorcycle Speedo is supposed to measure airspeed, how the rudder back there is supposed to affect anything, since he has no cyclic and the rotors are affixed to a non tiltable bar (judging from the support brackets in the pics) how is he going to control his direction of flight, I have many other questions but those will do for a start...

As long as he gets forward speed, the rudder will have some effect in changing his direction of flight.

If you look *CAREFULLY*, you will see that the axles coming off the differential are in tubes, so in theory he could tilt the rotors along that axis, and there appears to be 2 u-joints between the differential and the engine, so that *COULD* allow some degree of tilt.

Having said all that, I don't believe that thing got over a foot off the ground.

Yeah, I mean I don't want to "negative nancy" all over someone daring to dream or try, but the best ending he can hope for is "failed to fly" and the most likely ending is "caught fire and died."

TheBigJerk:Yeah, I mean I don't want to "negative nancy" all over someone daring to dream or try, but the best ending he can hope for is "failed to fly" and the most likely ending is "caught fire and died."

Yeah, but it doesn't actually look that bad.

He needs a more powerful engine and bigger rotors, but it could work. Still, though, if he wants to fly, he'd be better off building a fixed-wing aircraft. That way, if the motor quits, and eventually it will, he could still glide to a reasonably soft landing, perhaps even a survivable one.

With that kind of aircraft, though, he's farked. He can't auto-rotate. Once the engine quits, it would fall like a rock.

He looks like he's got the fabrication skills to make something like this from scratch:

That's what he should be thinking about, because an aircraft like that will be less likely to kill him in the event of an engine failure.

Think I read something, can't remember where (Reader's Digest maybe), about some guy in the USSR in the '80s who built a homemade ultralight that could be packed into two or three suitcases. He actually flew it around a field at night, but he couldn't say anything about it or the KGB would have apprehended him for "questioning".

/no, I am NOT making that up!//and I am NOT drunk///haven't even started drinking yet////except a couple cups of coffee//5 sets of slashies? I can build my own aircraft from these!

log_jammin:I used to keep a notebook with my plans for building a submarine.

Part of me is happy that I never gt the hang of welding, otherwise I'd probably be dead.

The other part of me knows it would have been so bad ass....

When I was 12 a friend and I built a submarine out of 3 55 gallon drums, a couple of inner tubes, a bunch of scrap lumber, and a bicycle pump. Not sure what we were thinking about using it on since the largest bodies of water within 50 miles were algae-choked irrigation ponds.

When we got done with construction it was too heavy to move without using a tractor (which we weren't allowed to touch) so it eventually turned into "yard art" and later - "junk."

dittybopper:TheBigJerk: Yeah, I mean I don't want to "negative nancy" all over someone daring to dream or try, but the best ending he can hope for is "failed to fly" and the most likely ending is "caught fire and died."

Yeah, but it doesn't actually look that bad.

He needs a more powerful engine and bigger rotors, but it could work. Still, though, if he wants to fly, he'd be better off building a fixed-wing aircraft. That way, if the motor quits, and eventually it will, he could still glide to a reasonably soft landing, perhaps even a survivable one.

With that kind of aircraft, though, he's farked. He can't auto-rotate. Once the engine quits, it would fall like a rock.

He looks like he's got the fabrication skills to make something like this from scratch:

[www.ultralightnews.com image 675x494]

That's what he should be thinking about, because an aircraft like that will be less likely to kill him in the event of an engine failure.

Well, the thing could barely get off the ground, so I don't think engine failure is that big of a problem.

I was a bit incredulous after seeing the other aircraft that were in the article. Really starts a guy thinking... Thoughts like " Why did it take the wright brothers, no, HUMANS so damn long to make a glider when these african dirt farmers can throw together a farking helicopter that works?

Hey if even Nigerian civilians have helicopter kinda money, I'd be stupid *not* to email my personal financial info to a General in their armed forces who is actually a good personal friend of mine as well. We're like OCD email penpals anyway so most of the time it doesn't even seem like he lives half way across the globe. The way the internet brings people together like that these days is awesome!

I don't know what's in the water in China, but either these guys have some gigantic brass nards or they're just completely insane. This thing is freakin' TERRIFYING...one little slip and you're quite literally food processed.